Ages: 15 months and up

Help your child come to her senses with three guessing games that put hearing, seeing, smelling, and touching to the test.

What You Need

• MIX AND MATCH:
• Pairs of objects such as crayons, pinecones, rubber balls, and plastic animals
• Shallow bag

• NAME THAT SOUND:
• Noisemakers (a kazoo, jingle bells, a whistle, a drum made from a recycled oatmeal container)
• YOUR NOSE KNOWS
• Materials with a strong scent, such as vanilla extract, ground cinnamon or ginger, orange or lemon peel, soap or shampoo
• Containers (recycled plastic spice jars work well)

Instructions

1. Mix and Match: For this hands-on game, set out pairs of objects, such as crayons, pinecones, rubber balls, and plastic animals, and let your tot practice finding matches by sight. Once she's mastered that task, dump the pairs into a shallow bag and see if she can locate the sets by feel alone.

2. Name That Sound: Gather up a cacophony of noisemakers and have your child experiment with blowing, clanging, and banging the instruments. When she's ready for something a bit trickier, ask her to close her eyes and see if she can recognize the sound of the instrument you're playing, then switch roles and take a turn guessing while she plays.

3. Your Nose Knows: Select some materials with a strong scent, such as vanilla extract, ground cinnamon or ginger, orange or lemon peel, even a familiar soap or shampoo, then place samples of each into separate containers. Younger toddlers will simply enjoy smelling the contents and learning their names. Challenge older kids to close their eyes, sniff, and try to identify what's in each of the containers.

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Find more about:

• Language & Learning Games |
• Toddler

Related Categories:

• Language & Learning |
• June 2009 |
• Toddler Games